Stevenage and District Motorcycle Club
THE THREE RALLIES
This report was first written for the now defunct club newsletter, anyone remember them?
It refers to the summer of 1998 and is reprinted here for the interest of newer members.
I have carried on with these rallies each year since, and have also found another rally, the Round Britain Rally, which I did last year, anyone who wishes to join me for any of them is more than welcome.
During the last few months this summer, when was that I hear you ask, I have taken part in the three major touring rallies held in Great Britain. These were the Welsh, riding around Wales, the Scottish, riding around Scotland and the grandly titled National, which actually only goes around England and a very small part of Wales.
They are all very similar in that you have to navigate around checkpoints to gain certain mileage’s covered and number of checkpoints reached. The first thing you get from the rally organisers a few weeks before the event is a list of the checkpoint locations and a chart of the area to be covered with the distances between each checkpoint, from this you have to work out your route according to the stated mileage’s, which in practice means you end up doing far more on the ground than you can claim.
Depending on the level of award you are attempting, you make your plans and look forward to the off.
The Welsh rally was held on the weekend of 9th and 10th May, starting at the village hall in Leighton, a small town near Welshpool, it was quite a sight to arrive and see almost 600 bikes; We set off on our various routes and apart from the first few checkpoints and the halfway point I hardly saw another bike all day, the Welsh rally has a halfway point where all must stop for a compulsory period. Some riders carried on to ride through the night, but many choose to finish here and receive a lesser award.
At the half way point and at one checkpoint during the day there was a written test, one on types of motorcycles and another general knowledge, but geared towards motorcycling, if you knew who was world superbike champion or where the Northwest 200 race was held you should have been there and helped me.
Most of the checkpoints in the Welsh rally were unmanned; at the start point a list of checkpoints was given out along with questions about the location, such things as what date was a certain bridge built, the name of the verger at the church or the telephone number of the phone box in the village, you had to answer these on your route card and hand in at the end to prove your visit.
The night time route seemed to have far more riders maybe because it had less choice of routes and was contained in a smaller area of north Wales, during the night there were four “Special” tests, these were; firing a GATT gun at a target, full marks here, a game where you had to move a loop around a bendy wire without touching and sounding the buzzer, I don’t know what you call the game but its tough at two in the morning, again full marks, I did however let the club down at the next test, throwing a ball into a small basketball hoop, zero for me.
The last test, held at the final checkpoint, was egg blowing, a small hole was bored into each end of an egg and you had to blow the contents out within a certain time without breaking the egg, again success, it did look rather amusing to see a long line of bikers queuing up to bend over and blow out onto the road all these eggs, I don’t know what passing motorists must have thought.
There are some superb roads and wonderful scenery in Wales and I covered an area as far north as Bangor and Conwy through Snowdonia and mid Wales to Aberystwyth, Welshpool and Shrewsbury.
The hardest part I found with this rally, and indeed all of them was the long slog home, the rally finished at 08:00 and it was 146 miles home via rather boring motorways, the rally having finished so all the excitement and anticipation that kept you going through the long day and night was gone.
In all during the Welsh rally I covered 892 miles visited 26 checkpoints, and gained 9 points from the special tests, the joint highest with only 18 others out of the 600 entrants, I would have done better but I got three questions wrong on the general knowledge test.
The National rally was on held on the 4th and 5th of July. This you may remember was the one which six of us took part in last year and almost twenty said they would do this year, was again a solo affair. You can start at any checkpoint but all must finish between 08:00 and 10:00 on Sunday morning at the final checkpoint, which this year was Doncaster racecourse.
I decided this time to attempt the platinum award which meant I had to devise a route of 540 miles with the maximum number of checkpoints, this year it was 24, and also to complete a special test stage which was held at the Motor Industry Research Association , MIRA, near Leicester, this meant that by the end of the rally I had covered 881 miles, including again the long slog home from the finish point.
There were almost 1800 entrants this year but with a limit of 250 for the platinum award.
The special stages at MIRA were three tests of handling, the first a zigzag through cones and back in under 60 seconds, a very steep hill climb and stop with a restart halfway up without rolling back, and a speed test where you had to ride the 2mile test track at a fixed speed as drawn from a hat, I ended up with having to do 30mph around the course, its harder that you think!!!.
Also at MIRA was a test of either vehicle width or weight, I chose weight. You had to write down on a card your estimate of the total weight of the bike including rider and any pillion, this was checked on a weight bridge and points awarded depending on how close you were to your estimate, I was 9kgs out, but I’m not telling you the total weight.
Each of the checkpoints on the National rally were manned, all you had to do was visit each one in planned order and have your route card stamped, some of the checkpoints were very well equipped with refreshments available all day and night, others just a tent in a lay-by in the middle of nowhere.
The rally covered some lovely, and also grim parts of England, I started off in Bromsgrove, rode out to the Welsh borders, north to Ellesmere Port and Stoke on Trent, out through Derbyshire, along the famous Cat and Fiddle run. It was 1 in the morning so it didn’t look much to me, on to Chesterfield, could not see it’s crooked spire. Finally through Lincolnshire and south Yorkshire to the finish.
The National rally ended up with me doing 881 miles in just over 24 hours, visiting 24 checkpoints and gaining the platinum award.
I had decided to do the Scottish rally as a touring award, 1000 miles and twenty checkpoints, my wife Teresa, and I travelled up on Wednesday 9th September and stayed overnight at a bike friendly pub in Longtown near Carlisle, I can give you the details if you wish.
The first day proper of the rally we went through Dumfries and Galloway over the Clyde on the Erskine bridge, which is almost unique as its toll free for motorcycles, quite a boon if you’re fully togged up with your waterproofs as we were.
The scenery and roads so far were good, except the bit around Clydebank, a suburb of Glasgow, where I was glad not to be stopping, only passing through as quickly as possible. When we passed over the Clyde and rode alongside Loch Lomand through Glencoe and onto Fort William the real Scotland began, we were amazed at the size and beauty of the mountains the rolling moor land and the superb roads; by the end of the week I looked forward to a straight bit. Overnight we spent in Fort William, a nice if expensive hotel, which let us park the bike on the forecourt for security.
Day two was perhaps the best of all, the roads north out of Fort William into the northern Highlands are fantastic, well made, bendy with wonderful scenery in all directions, for those of you that think the “Cat and Fiddle” run in Derbyshire is the best, get yourselves up to Scotland and take the A87, it’s paradise.
We travelled northward along the western coast and made the obligatory visit to John’O’Groats, I wouldn’t bother again, it was a gaudy tourist trap which only had any significance because of its location. We travelled south along the east coast to our overnight stop at Brorra, north of Inverness, this road, the A9, was again superb, only falling darkness and fatigue marred it. The overnight stop at a friendly family run guest house was excellent, the bike being parked in the owners garage for the night after he moved his Volvo out of the way.
Next morning we set off for what was the last full day of the rally, we travelled down past Inverness, through towns such as Elgin, didn’t see any marbles, Aviemore, Braemar and Balmorral, we spent the night in another friendly little guest house in Aberfeldy.
The next day was a relaxed ride to the finish checkpoint near Oban, at a little tea rooms overlooking Loch Awe in a delightfully named village called Drishag, no jokes about this please
The checkpoints on the Scottish rally were all garages, from which you had to obtain a receipt to prove your visit, at one we managed to pick up a receipt from some people who had stayed at the hotel which was part of the same complex, for £585, I hope there is a prize for the highest receipt.
We rode back to our last night stop at the same hotel we had stayed at the first night, but decided to go via the east coast and over the Forth road bridge, the famous Forth Bridge we saw over on our left and yes it was being painted, we went around Edinburgh and back to Carlisle along the A7, another delightful road.
To add a few miles on to the trip, as if they were needed, we returned home via the north Yorkshire moors and visited “Heartbeat” country, we parked the bike up outside the “Aidensfield” post office and walked through the village to the garage opposite the “Aidensfield” arms, the man running the garage, which was a bit of a tourist trap, was restoring a Manx AJS, there was already a pristine Manx Norton on display, along with the bikes from the TV programme. we had quite a long chat with the chap, much to the annoyance of all the tourists who wanted pictures and information about the “Heartbeat” garage.
The ride back through the moors was superb, only marred by the long slog down the A1 to home.
The Scottish rally was a marathon 1893 miles door to door but worth every aching mile for the sheer beauty of the landscapes and the brilliance of the roads, if you get a chance GO.
This year the ACU, who governs the three rallies, has an award for those who finish each of the three events, the Scottish rally had 160 entrants, its highest ever, so there can be no more than that number of people gaining the award, probably less.
These rallies have meant a total mileage of 3666 miles, around 340 litres of fuel used and some 100 hours in the saddle. Anyone want to join me next year??
David Kinch
Triumph Trophy Rider and Club Web Master.